Art History Picture Books

This year we are focusing on contemporary local artists, but I loved teaching four years of Art History. Hopefully those studies laid a good foundation for our upcoming in-person artist discussions. I have to give a shout out to Lotus Stewart at Art History Kids because her course Magnificent Modern Art was really life changing for me and inspired me to give teaching Art a try!

Lotus just made a YouTube video of her 25 favorite art books for kids and I cannot resist making a list with links (Amazon) to each title. Here you go!

Uncle Andy's Cats by James Warhola

Miró's Magic Animals and The Boy Who Bit Picasso by Antony Penrose

Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos by Monica Brown

Cézanne's Parrot by Amy Guglielmo

Saving the Countryside: The Story of Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit
by Linda Marshall

Dancing Through Fields of Color: The Story of Helen Frankenthaler
by Elizabeth Brown

The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse
by Patricia MacLachlan

My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey
by Jeanne Walker Harvey

Vincent Can't Sleep: Van Gogh Paints the Night Sky
by Barb Rosenstock

Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, a Life in Nature
by Cindy Jenson-Elliott

Mary Blair's Unique Flair: The Girl Who Became One of the Disney Legends
by Amy Novesky

Alma's Art by Roda Ahmed

Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keeffe Painted What She Pleased
by Amy Novesky

Just Being Dalí: The Story of Artist Salvador Dalí by Amy Guglielmo

Faith Ringgold: Narrating the World in Pattern and Color (What the Artist Saw)
by Sharna Jackson

Degas and the Little Dancer (Anholt's Artists)
by Laurence Anholt

Mornings with Monet by Barb Rosenstock

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave
by Laban Carrick Hill

Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa
by Andrea D'Aquino

Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois
by Amy Novesky

Prairie Boy: Frank Lloyd Wright Turns the Heartland into a Home
by Barb Rosenstock

Building Zaha: The Story of Architect Zaha Hadid
by Victoria Tentler-Krylov

Out of This World: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington
by Michelle Markel

I have a lot of these books but it's always fun to learn about new titles!

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Vertical Teacher Planner

My first choice and my second choice of teacher planbook are BOTH no longer being made, so today I spent a good hour and a half searching through all the remaining options. I finally discovered this nifty little item -- Elan Publishing Company 4 Period Teacher Lesson Plan; Days Vertically Down The Side (P4-97) -- and I'm very happy! For just $12.95, this bare bones stripped down planner comes with no stickers. It is simply an undated planner with the days vertically down the side, and four blocks of time.



For Waldorf homeschool families, these four blocks could correspond to Head / Heart / Hands plus a column to also list doctor appointments, etc.

For me, it goes beautifully with our three blocks of time in the day -- AM (before snack), MM (mid-morning, ie. after snack and before lunch), and PM (after recess). The fourth section is for my notes on individual children and it has eight rows, enough for each child to have a personal note each day.

I do a combination of whole group, small group, and one-on-one lessons every day and it's hard to find a planbook which will accommodate all those notes! This one looks like it will work well.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Fishing! And More Fishing!

We are just coming to the end of a lovely summer vacation.

Besides all the usual time at the pool and community house and walking the beach hunting for sharks' teeth, Zac played lots of pickleball and pétanque. He went crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay. We went to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore and had lunch at the Rusty Scupper for his birthday.

We also went to upper New York state and Zac had his first experience with canoe camping, rowing out to a tiny private island on a beautiful lake in the Adirondack Mountains. Zac spent most of his time there practicing his cast, and got his own fishing vest and his very first fishing rod and tackle box.

And he spent a weekend in Philadelphia with friends, visiting the Mint and the Federal Reserve, and getting to try food from several new countries.

Now we have just a few days left before we head back to Illinois, and I asked him what he wanted to do before we left. His response? More fishing!

Luckily I found this site: Fishing & Crabbing - Calvert County MD.

So today we are going to look for more places for my boy to fish...

Seasons in Poetry

Here is a page last updated March 1, 2010 called "Seasons in Poetry."

I have a lot of new poetry collections that I would recommend since then, but it's still fun to look back at my past thinking!

Winter

Snow
by Cynthia Rylant

Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems
ed. by X. J. Kennedy et al.

• "Winter Morning" by Ogden Nash
• "Cynthia in the Snow" by Gwendolyn Brooks
• "First Snowflake" by N.M. Bodecker

Poetry of Earth
illus. by Adrienne Adams

• "Velvet Shoes" by Elinor Wylie

Poetry Speaks to Children book & CD
ed. by Elise Paschen, et al.

• "Skating in the Wind" by Kristine O'Connell George
• "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost - read by the poet
• "Winter" by W.D. Snodgrass - read by the poet

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Spring

Basho and the Fox
by Tim Myers

Basho and the River Stones
by Tim Myers

How to Write Haiku and Other Short Poems
by Paul Janeczko

Red Dragonfly on My Shoulder
ed. by Sylvia Cassedy

Eric Carle's Animals Animals
ed. by Laura Whipple

Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin
by Lloyd Moss

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Summer

The Hutchinson Treasury of Children's Poetry
ed. by Alison Sage

Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud
by Lynn Plourde

Every Time I Climb a Tree
by David McCord

• "Glowworm"
• "Far Away"
• "The Grasshopper"
• "Bananas and Cream"

The Dragons Are Singing Tonight
by Jack Prelutsky

• "I Am Boom!"

Handsprings
by Douglas Florian

• "Growing"
• "Rain Song"
• "Rain Reign"

Insectlopedia
by Douglas Florian

• "The Army Ants"
• "The Inchworm"
• "The Praying Mantis"
• "The Whirligig Beetles"
• "The Termites"
• "The Locusts"

Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky
by Georgia Heard

• "Hummingbird"
• "Fishes"
• "Frog Serenade"

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Autumn

Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein

Here's a Little Poem
ed. by Jane Yolen, et al

Whose Garden Is It?
by Mary Ann Hoberman

I Love You As Much…
by Laura Krauss Melmed

In the Land of Elves
by Daniela Drescher

Child of Faerie, Child of Earth
by Jane Yolen

Louella Mae, She's Run Away!
by Karen Beaumont Alarcón

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Around the Year

Just found an old page from 2006 (Becca would have been just 1) called "Around the Year" and it's so sweet. I would do this project again if I still had little ones and was doing a Nature Table. I was keeping track of what bloomed when, and what curriculum resources I had to match.

Around the Year
East Coast United States
zone 7

January

Sasanqua -- fall blooming camellia -- January 11

winter honeysuckle

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February

Vinca minor -- periwinkle -- February 10

snowdrops -- February 17

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March

crocus -- March 7

daffodils -- March 10

forsythia

---

April

cherry tree -- Song of the Wild Cherry Blossom Fairy -- April 7

tulips

the first dandelions -- When the Wind Stops by Charlotte Zolotow -- April 27

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May

reblooming iris -- first bloom -- May 2

dwarf korean lilac -- May 13

azaleas

strawberries -- pick strawberries

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June

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July

wineberries -- pick wineberries -- July 2

zinnias -- Song of the Zinnia Fairy -- July 26

sunflowers -- July 29

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August

blackberries -- pick blackberries -- August 1

lavender -- Song of the Lavender Fairy -- August 5

daylilies -- August 9

small cornhusk doll for Nature table -- August 13

morning glories -- August 16

peach tree -- pick peaches -- August 18

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September

crab apple tree -- pick crab apples -- Song of the Crab-Apple Fairy -- September 14

sweet gum -- gather gumballs -- September 29

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October

black walnut -- gather nuts -- October 13

oak tree -- gather acorn caps for Felt Wee Folk -- October 19

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November

dogwood berries -- November 1

ivy leaves -- November 14

pine tree -- gather pinecones -- November 22

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December

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!